DJ Chill Freeze – turntables between sets (may be playing during some of the show — I noted one point in Set 2’s improvisations where it sounded like a DJ’s samples, but Billy never announces the DJ as performing during the show (dug))

– SHACK THOUGHTS — SHACK PARTIES I-VII ’96 –
Listen to these gigs. Listen to all of these gigs — it’s the best advice I can give you. These Shack Parties, where the band played for 7 Mondays in a row at the Knitting Factory in NYC, encompass such a wide range of the band’s talents and musical interests that a summation would simply do the music an injustice. Whether you dig a certain track or guest through this run, you have to admit that each guest brings something unique to the mix which in turn causes the band to react and shift, making the music they all create something adventuresome and real for that moment only. There are also plenty of moments where it’s just the trio and you’ll love it. As they explore both groove and open space with/out guests, it is clear this is a band out to make inspired music.

Oren Bloedow’s speech during Set II of the last Shack Party puts it best … so take a listen and Shack-out with these near 20 year-old musical explorations …

Medeski 1996-11-26 @Waterloo Records, Austin, TX

– SHACK PARTY VII THOUGHTS –

What can I say? Been blabbing for weeks about these shows, and this last Shack Party is no exception. The gig is lousy with incredible improvisation, guest input that fits so well (Tablas?!; Dirac and Blume on guitar?; Hipp sax?), and a straight-up bluesy encore by the trio alone … a tune some of you might know as Slow Blues For Fuzy’s Mama, but is originally titled Can’t Get What You Want … hope you got what you needed on this last Shack Party pick for Friday Afternoon In The Universe … onto some other gigs for next week’s FAITU pick!

– SHACK THOUGHTS — SHACK PARTIES I-VII ’96 –
Listen to these gigs. Listen to all of these gigs — it’s the best advice I can give you. These Shack Parties, where the band played for 7 Mondays in a row at the Knitting Factory in NYC, encompass such a wide range of the band’s talents and musical interests that a summation would simply do the music an injustice. Whether you dig a certain track or guest through this run, you have to admit that each guest brings something unique to the mix which in turn causes the band to react and shift, making the music they all create something adventuresome and real for that moment only. There are also plenty of moments where it’s just the trio and you’ll love it. As they explore both groove and open space with/out guests, it is clear this is a band out to make inspired music.

Oren Bloedow’s speech during Set II of the last Shack Party puts it best … so take a listen and Shack-out with these near 20 year-old musical explorations …

1996-10-21 ticket stub

– SHACK PARTY VI THOUGHTS –

After a brief introduction from illyB, wasting no time, a beat kicks in and the trio along with Eddie Bobe and Vernon Reid launch into some HEADY improvisation, with DJ Logic eventually joining the fray. The next 35min is simply outstanding group communication riding through waves of intensity and loose open grooves — this is Shackin’ Out at its finest, folks. This show is loaded with guests, as Bobe and Reid leave the stage, Daniel Carter joins on sax and Leon Gruenbaum on his very own creation, the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee – see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samchillian – with these players lending their input to the the next set of improvisations. Juliana Nash joins on vocals for a couple of tunes, Gramma’s Hands (played again a few years later with Bruce Hornsby) and accompanied by Jennifer Jackson’s vox on the oldie, Chain of Fools, with Carter remaining on stage, the ensemble is also joined by Logic and Oren Bloedow for this fun celebratory close to the set.

The 2nd set sees many of the same players return, but Ben Perowski on percussion starts the set with the trio, Steven Bernstein makes an appearance on the too-little-played “Going Home”, with David Fiuczynski and Dean Bowman jumping in at the end on a tune they played on a few times with MMW, the Hendrix classic, Crosstown Traffic, which closes the night on a HIGH note.

The space and sounds explored over this 6th Shack Party should do well to sooth you with groove on this Friday Afternoon In The Universe …

– SHACK THOUGHTS — SHACK PARTIES I-VII ’96 –
Listen to these gigs. Listen to all of these gigs — it’s the best advice I can give you. These Shack Parties, where the band played for 7 Mondays in a row at the Knitting Factory in NYC, encompass such a wide range of the band’s talents and musical interests that a summation would simply do the music an injustice. Whether you dig a certain track or guest through this run, you have to admit that each guest brings something unique to the mix which in turn causes the band to react and shift, making the music they all create something adventuresome and real for that moment only. There are also plenty of moments where it’s just the trio and you’ll love it. As they explore both groove and open space with/out guests, it is clear this is a band out to make inspired music.

Oren Bloedow’s speech during Set II of the last Shack Party puts it best … so take a listen and Shack-out with these near 20 year-old musical explorations …

1996-10-14 ticket stub

– SHACK PARTY V THOUGHTS –

The official release of Shack-man, this night finds the trio playing through much of the album, out of order and with some further explorations, to play out the first set of this gig — light on actual spontaneous composition improvisation, but full on manipulation of the tunes makes this a HOT set. I mean, the start of ITAHTLMJ has Medeski on *piano* and it sounds SOOOOO cool!

2nd set returns to the Shack Party format, launching off a groovy Good Golly Miss Molly with Dean Bowman wailing it (I dig this one!), the players head out from there, dabbling in some Hendrix references but really just pushing the music into full on improvisations, to wrap up with the Mingus classic, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat … I can’t help but feel I could do with less of Bowman’s vocals through the set, but having the FUZE on guitar along with Logic makes this a minor “complaint” … it’s a very fun playful set …

Head into your Friday Afternoon In The Universe with Medeski’s piano tinkering to start ITAHTMJ, and let the music flow over/through you …

– SHACK THOUGHTS — SHACK PARTIES I-VII ’96 –
Listen to these gigs. Listen to all of these gigs — it’s the best advice I can give you. These Shack Parties, where the band played for 7 Mondays in a row at the Knitting Factory in NYC, encompass such a wide range of the band’s talents and musical interests that a summation would simply do the music an injustice. Whether you dig a certain track or guest through this run, you have to admit that each guest brings something unique to the mix which in turn causes the band to react and shift, making the music they all create something adventuresome and real for that moment only. There are also plenty of moments where it’s just the trio and you’ll love it. As they explore both groove and open space with/out guests, it is clear this is a band out to make inspired music.

Oren Bloedow’s speech during Set II of the last Shack Party puts it best … so take a listen and Shack-out with these near 20 year-old musical explorations …

Knitting Factory

– SHACK PARTY IV THOUGHTS –

So this is WAY cool — I love when this happens! I was about to write that the opening of this 4th Shack Party contains one of my favourite improvisations from the run, maybe ever — I threw on the groove to listen as I write and it hit me: “That’s a tune! I know that tune! From where … ?!” A few years ago I discovered that a groove played during Nov-Dec ’96 labelled as an improvisation since the shows was actually an unidentified song — the “improvisation” was always the same groove, so that’s an MMW song to me! I named the tracked “Binghamton Slide Groove” because the first show I found containing the song was 11/2/1996 from Binghamton, NY — the song was played a few more times and then never heard from again … or so I thought, and it turns out this Shack Party version is actually the first known performance of the tune — it’s a great melody and groove, I don’t know why the band would drop it, but you can check it out at the opening of this show and Danny Blume adds some real nice guitar over the track (even has a cool little breakdown). From “Binghamton Slide Groove” the music moves to Open space before illyB cops a short Drum Solo leading to the start of the next groove, the first full Improv of the night, and the group moves through two more distinct improvisations before the last fizzles down to some nice piano from Medeski before it just drops into a thunderous vamp while Billy introduces the musicians. Rob Scheps has once again joined the guys on stage as well, a Shack Party regular, and his playing fits in perfectly with the players — you can hear Scheps getting more comfortable as he returns each week. The trio alone close the set with a Shack-take on Ellington’s Wig Wise, including an extended drum interlude — set break.

G. Calvin Weston joins for the start of the 2nd set, so he and illyB get things moving with a Drums jam (I’ve seen Weston with MMW in another setting, and he and Billy are kindred spirits — they have an extended history). Scheps once again steps up on sax, and Dean Bowman comes out to deliver some Dean-Bowman-like vocal riffing (coolest part is the initial take on the Murder by Numbers lyrics, but then he goes off the rails a bit for my tastes, per usual). Likewise, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat features Bowman’s vocal input with varying success (IMHO), but then IMPROVISATION takes over the remainder of the set — sans vocals — and the results are one of the BEST RUN OF GROOVES over this whole run. It’s just the trio at first, but then Danny Blume returns to the stage for what I can only call an Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus IMPROV! VERY COOL! Blume remains for the following section of groove that erupts into a celebratory climax, before fizzling down again and leaving only the trio on stage to wrap up the evening with one final kick at the Improvisatory-can, which begins with this wild melody being bowed by Chris on the stand-up and things just get wackier and more fun from there … by the time John lands on the piano … whoah … or maybe this is a song too? …

This is one of my personal favourite overall gigs from the Shack Party run, and hope it helps you enjoy this Friday Afternoon In The Universe, as we head into Canadian Thanksgiving – HAPPY T-DAY, MY FELLOW CANUCKS!

– SHACK THOUGHTS — SHACK PARTIES I-VII ’96 –
Listen to these gigs. Listen to all of these gigs — it’s the best advice I can give you. These Shack Parties, where the band played for 7 Mondays in a row at the Knitting Factory in NYC, encompass such a wide range of the band’s talents and musical interests that a summation would simply do the music an injustice. Whether you dig a certain track or guest through this run, you have to admit that each guest brings something unique to the mix which in turn causes the band to react and shift, making the music they all create something adventuresome and real for that moment only. There are also plenty of moments where it’s just the trio and you’ll love it. As they explore both groove and open space with/out guests, it is clear this is a band out to make inspired music.

Oren Bloedow’s speech during Set II of the last Shack Party puts it best … so take a listen and Shack-out with these near 20 year-old musical explorations …

MMW c.1996

– SHACK PARTY III THOUGHTS –

illyB kicks down a beat to get the groove rolling, and the other musicians just start piling on, layering the sound, and a superb groove is born! Over the next 30min the group on stage, MMW + Logic, Bernstein, & Scheps, take us through 4 distinct improvisations before we hit some Open space that winds us down to just the trio with Logic on the Horace Silver tune/jazz standard, Cape Verdean Blues — nothing standard in MMW’s take on the tune though! The horns return after a Bass Solo from Chris, and stick out for another Improv > Organ’n’Trumpet jam that smoothly leads into Wiggly’s Way before the horns exit again. Bernstein is a perfect fit for MMW any time, and in this set he’s a monster on that slide trumpet — just KILLER! The set ends with Jennifer Jackson’s beautiful vocals accompanying the trio on an “Unknown Bassanova”.

And then there’s a 2nd set! It begins on a subdued note with Medeski solo on piano which opens up into a killer improvisation when the guests join in with Logic quite prominent and Oren (must be him on guitar) — I mean, Oren is nailing it here! Great stuff! We get a Drums’n’DJ breakdown at a few points (Weston eventually joins the percussive fray later in the set), some Open explorations, Bass’n’Drums, and incredible groove improvisations — where do all these melodies come from!?! Rufus Cappadocia on cello is an INCREDIBLE addition to this set of musicians and his input on the latter part of the set’s improvisations as well as on the tune Friday Afternoon In The Universe, makes this afternoon’s listen all the more special … the closing number is an Oren Bloedow tune that wraps up the set in a similarly subdued manner as Medeski’s solo started … some sweet sax from Aaron Heik on this number too …

Gotta say I just love how far out the FAITU tune gets in that 2nd set … and this quote makes me chuckle each time I hear Billy utter these words near the start of the show, “New record coming out in a couple of weeks, check it out. We’re *not* playing any of the music from that record tonight …” — HA!

The Shack Slideshow

The Shack Tweets

TSP2014 site notes

This site fullfills an OCD urge and is not officially associated with Medeski Martin & Wood. This is an unofficial archive of the band's musical history providing free live downloads and streaming for those who care to dig the grooves.

THANKS

Thanks to MMW for allowing the recording of their live shows, and HUGE thanks to all the tapers as well as the many others out there who have helped get the tunes to our ears!

MMW Photos

I am using photos throughout the site found doing simple Google searches online. I am very thankful to the photographers for the images, and will gladly credit or remove as requested.